Ya'll Wonderin' where I've been In The Blogosphere?

A while back I made changes to my private blog and lost all my emails to my readers.  I am still posting there if you  want to stay updated.  I only update this blog on occasion:)  Either comment here, FB me, or (whatever...you know how to get a hold of me)text me with your email address so I can add you back on if ya want. 

Xoxo,

Maranda

Demo Day At Our Place

Main bath when we moved in:

Demolition Day:

All the tile out, the cupboards removed, faucets gone, and lastly the tub will be out.

I'm pretty sure I could only survive one day of Dave's job.  It is some serious labor(at least the demolition).  I got to demo the bath and shower removing the tile and grout and I was dying!  It was some labor intensive work. I'm pretty sure I would have huge muscles if I did that everyday.  My arm was so sore from sledgehammering all the tile and then knocking it all out.

Now the make over:

After removing the tub, we discovered there must have been a flood.  It had been repaired, but not professionally(at least by how they did the repair) The flooring was not secured to the joices(SP).  So when you would step in certain areas of the floor, it would sink.  Not good if you are putting tile in.  It would definitely crack soon after installation.  So Dave had to rip everything out...to the bare bones. 

A partial bare bones pic from my phone.  Not the best quality, but I forgot to take one with the good camera before the new sub floor went in.

The new floor and sub floor are now installed.  Next we finalize our tile selection as well as order a BATHTUB!!  I will finally be able to soak in a bathtub again...I cannot wait!! Dave is going to re-plumb the shower though, so he has a few more things to do before we can finish her up:)  I'm just excited we are making some progress upstairs!!

We Got Some Spring Chicks!

Aren't they just loveable!!  We have been talking about getting our own chicks for quite some time, and we finally did it!!  Thanks to Dave for being in the know how for all this kind of fun stuff!  The other day he came home with all the fixings to raise baby chicks and 12 baby chicks to go with it.

The kids are having a hay day holding them.

Lila absolutely LOVES them!  She asks everyday if she can hold them and she kisses and pets them over and over.  It is pretty darn cute.

I am so excited to have our own chicks and to be able to eventually have our own fresh eggs!  The other day Dave and I built a chicken box for them to live in(not pictured) while they grow. I felt so cool with the nail gun and helping him build something.  He showed me exactly what to do and he taught me a few carpentry skills. My husband is seriously the bomb!

Merry Christmas From The Carlile's!!

I got my Christmas cards out yesterday!  Yippeee!!! Here it is! Gotta love Costco:)

I love getting Christmas cards every year and for the past few years I have gotten ours out too.  Checking the mail is so much fun throughout December getting everyone's cards! So if ya sent us one this year.  Let me give ya a big smooch  MMmmmwwwwwuuuuaaaaa! Getting mail is my favorite!

We are just about ready for Christmas.  I've only got a thing or two left to do:) 

 Happiness and love to you and yours!

Xoxo

Maranda

It's Official...

All unnecessary walls are now down in the Carlile home. Yaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!  Wall number 1 click here.  

All pics on the left are before pics and then the ones on the right are taken from the same point, but now the wall is gone:)

Wall number two:

The hallway in the basement...Is now a hallway in the basement that leads to the family room. 

Left pic: A before shot.  There was a wall separating the family room from the far side of the house.

 Middle and Right pic: in the process of taking it down pics.  I will post the finished product once we paint and spruce the area up.

  Now there are two entrances to this room.  One from the kitchen and now one from the hallway. 

Haven't quite gotten as far as repainting or doing new baseboards, because we are still deciding on whether or not we want to spend time and money on doing new flooring now...I am thinking we keep the tile that is there for now, put baseboards on, do the molding on the ceiling, paint it and then once we move upstairs, we tackle new flooring in the basement?  I just don't feel like living in a construction zone right now.

Wall number 3

This pic is a view of the wall smack dab in the middle of the window. Sorry about the lighting on this one. Oh and did you notice the curtain rod up there at the top?  Whoever built that wall, built it around the curtains, so they  were still in place and without damage, even after the wall came down...hahahaha...but they are now down and on their way to the trash.

So funny how some people build stuff.  The wall was also built right on top of the existing carpet.  When Dave pulled it down, it was the same carpet throughout the room.

This is looking in from the entry way.  We took the french doors out and knocked the wall out.  Now we just need to pull up the padding and Dave can get busy with his mad home remodeling skillz.

I've entered the DIY Ultimate Kitchen and bath giveaway like everyday!  I hope I win, I hope I win, I hope I win!!! Then we could afford to get this baby done and overwith in no time:)  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Since we haven't finished remodeling these areas, I am going to wait to post our progress.  We have been busy!:)  Well, mostly Dave has been, but I'm not counting myself out.  I've done some dirty work  helping unload a heap of stuff at the dump.  Let me just say I nearly threw up when I opened the car door, and I had my bouts of dry heaving throughout the experience.  Glad I don't work there...Delivering babies and dealing with the occasional bowel movement might stink everynow and again, but it is no where near the stink at the dump.  Hahahaha...TMI

Say What?

Picture from here.

Picture from here.

Picture from here.

Hahaha...I had to post this to The Blog.  I am seriously loving this website!  It has given Dave and I tons of ideas for the remodel + I love all the cutesy stuff on there I can make for my sissy girl + all the cool kid craft ideas+decor ideas!  This site is just pure genious!

  I love that I can get on there in the wee hours of the night to see how creative people are! There are tons of do it yourself (DIY's) projects, and I actually think I could makes some pretty cool stuff!  Yay for creative people!

Pomegranate Juice...Sort Of

That right there is about 10 seeded pomegranates...give or take a few

My idea of juicing since I don't have a pomegranate press yet.  I couldn't fit all of the seeds in on one blend, so i did two.

Looks more like a smoothie to me:)

It was kind of like one because of the texture.  But the seeds took away the "smoothe" aspect of a smoothie. It was still rather tasty.  This juice is THE best juice from a fruit I've ever tried so far!  I had never had any before.  Now I am noticing at the grocery store, they do sale pomegranate juice for like an arm and a leg, and you only get like two cups!  But I can understand why the cost is so high now that I have slaved away at seeding the darn things.  I'll bet I spent a good two hours seeding those pomegranates and I only yielded about two quarts of juice, but boy...I'll tell you what, that juice was worth it!!  Now I just really need a pomegranate press:)

Pomegranates Anyone?

We had ourselves a Fall Harvest of Pomegranates!!

  So, after I took this picture, I realized I still had another box full outside!  Can you even believe this!?  My kids are loving it!  Their clothes?  Not so much. We have lots of stained shirts because of these bad boys.  I'm going to have to designate clothing to such eatery;)

The blue tote is all of the fruit that was cracked.  I am going to make juice with those tomorrow.  The rest I will be sharing and I am going to attempt Pomegranate Jam.  My kids hate store bought jam and I've heard Pomegranate Jelly is pretty good. So hopefully I can figure it out.

Yay for the pomegranate tree!

Remodeling The Family Room

Here are some before pics of the family room in stages:

Some of these are poor quality pics taken with my phone.  Dave started demolition before we moved in and I didn't take a true before pic.  So I wasn't thinking when I stopped by to see his progress and forgot our good camera.

Just imagine the room before the wall was taken out with stinky, ugly brown carpet, oh and don't forget all the rabbit poo on the floor.  Eeek!

Dave started with ripping all of the carpet and baseboards out.  Then he took down this wall that divided the large family room.

Had to take a pic of Dave triumphing over the wall:)  Teehee...

In the pic below, you see he has started with the crown molding and baseboards.  He also wired the place for a smokin hot surround sound for the time when we can buy our smokin hot flat screen ;) 

It's not done yet, but almost:)  We Dave still has to install the lighting, do some touch ups, install the speakers for the surround sound, make a flat screen purchase(*cough* *cough* just kidding), and figure out a way to fit my pretty armoir downstairs:(  I was so sad when it wouldn't fit.  So as you can see, we have improvised with a kids dresser for a TV stand.

View from the soon to be hallway.

By the way we lucked out with this carpet.  Dave comes across all sorts of things at his work.  Most everything just goes to the dump, unless someone wants to take whatever was left.  Every now and again, Dave will come home with miscellaneous shelving, and just way random stuff if we need it or if he knows he can use it at a job.  Anyhow, at one foreclosure he found this unused carpet.  It even had the plastic still on it!  When Dave found out for sure they couldn't use it for the houses they fix up, he got to keep it! It is a kind of berber.  Not exactly the color or style of what I would have chosen, but it was free!  We just had to pay to have it installed.  We felt pretty blessed to come across it.  

View from the basement entrance.

Eventually, we will replace the doors with a more modern style.  But Dave is going to wait and order all of the doors at the same time.

So yay!!  It's livable and it is a fresh and guaranteed clean room for visitors!!

Life Is:

cRaZy!!!!!  I don't ever even have a few minutes to spare for my blogging to ever stay current.  Between school, scouts, swimming, Lila starting a once a week "preschool" (its more like a two hour play date without mom so I can try and get some kidless things done around here), me working, and endless projects around the house, I am just lucky if the kids get a decent meal these days.

I am at the boys school waiting for an assembly to start, so I have a spare min to write a few of my thoughts. Yay for the internet on a phone;)

My husband is Da bomb! He finished the family room, well made it useable at least. There are some touch ups to do and speaker installations, but then it will be completely done YAY!!!! I will get some before and after pics up in the next week or two.

Lots Goo.g on this weekend, so until I have a spare min at home or a slow night at work, the blog will be slow to publish

Xoxo,

Maranda

Lizard Catching is our Fortay!